The Soymilk: Round 2

I hit my low point this week when it came to sugar cane juice. I not only devised a very well thought out plan as to how I am going to obtain a sugar cane pressing machine in America AND the accompanying sugar cane stalks (question: do they grow sugar cane in America besides Hawaii? Like in Florida? Or am I gonna have to import it from other countries?) BUT i also bought a special sugar cane peeling knife that cost me five dollars. Aka the cost of 5 Cambodian meals. (Im gonna starve in America just because all food is too expensive). Anywho, the lady who sold it to me thought I was nuts, for sure. 

There really isn't much to report for this week, in the way of weird or funny situations. We got more lessons this week than I've ever had since I've been in SMC (which was still a pretty low number) but I was pretty pleased with it. Other than that, pretty normal lessons. 

Actually I Do have a funny sotry unrelated to me in every aspect. I am sitting next to sister Harris right now:

​Real time selfie!!! I see her all the time, its no big deal.

And no......the date is not December 31, 2037..............AGAIN #ihatemycamera

Okay, so we're sitting here together and Sister Harris and I were reminiscing about Om Im's soymilk days and Sister Harris told me the funniest story. In her own words:

"So, in my house theres a huge skylight aka a HUGE hole in the ceiling that peers into the attic. its way creepy. Like you can see right into this abandoned attic. Anyway, the other day I ate something sketchy and so I was spending a lot of time in the bathroom, and as I sat there in my misery, I looked up to stare into the abyss and there, in the hole in the ceiling was a CAT just peering on in! It was the scariest thing ever! just two huge eyes STARING at me!" 

Anyway, I died laughing when she told me that. So, when life gets you down, play Sister Harris'favorite game "It could be worse" as in....It could be worse.....you could have a stray cat staring at you while you're going to the bathroom.

Speaking of It could be worse, Sister Harris wrote me a letter before we parted ways and signed off with this little message:  "It could be worse.....we could still be teaching Ming Rani"

Which brings me to my next point: We are teaching Min Rani again. She went to church last week, and as we promised, if she came to church we would start teaching her. So we went and decided to teach her about baptism, since she had previously learned all the lessons, and specifically talking about baptism by the proper authority, since she is a member of another Christian church. Here's the crazy thing: this woman is FULL of contradictions.  she CLAIMS that she believes our church is the true church, but she does not believe she needs to be baptized into it. She CLAIMS that she believes the Book of Mormon is the word of god, but she refuses to read it because its the exact same as the Bible so she only reads the Bible. So...we're struggling. We are also struggling because she is STILL way offended about the wat situation I told you about ages ago, AND she is offended with another member....that one member being Om Im. When I heard about her issue with Om Im I almost jumped out of my chair to defend my favorite Cambodian grandma. It was seriously the dumbest thing ever. People here get so easily offended, and I do NOT know how to combat it. Anyway, we are planning on seeing Ming Rani again today and going through the lessons again start to finish to make sure she understands clearly. its gonna be a doozy.

here's one thing Sister Matthews and I have discussed, particularly surrounding Ming Rani. We think that most people we teach assume we are really........not smart (censoring myself there). Because we dont speak their language as well, and we probably have a funny accent and we are "slow of speech" to quote the BoM, they assume that we are unintelligent individuals. here's the deal. Do i know everything? Not in the slightest. But I KNOW what Ming Rani is trying to pull. She makes a lot of excuses and thinks that I am not smart enough to know that she's lying to us. So we committed her to read the Book of Mormon every day and she was like, "oh, sisters I would but I cant read the small print." and I was like, well what if we got copied for you in big print. they've got them at the mission home." and she started laughing and weas like.....oh i see what your getting at sisters. It was this moment that Im not sure I can describe in words, but its like she knows what shes trying to do, I know what shes trying to do, and now SHE knows that I know what shes trying to pull.....and its not working. She is a toughie, thats all I have to say. But Sister Matthews and I are going into the lesson tonight with our ENLGISH Bibles, so you know we are planning on an intense lesson here.

We also had a woman come to church named Ming Khan who had learned with our missioanries about two years ago and never got baptized. But she has come back to Phnom Penh and walked right into the church building on her own and was like, I learned before, I'm here to worship God. And we were like...........................k. So we tried to follow her home after church so we could find out where her house is and she was on a moto but the guy driving the moto got ticked about something halfway along the road and started speeding off and we totally lost em. It was SO FRUSTRATING because we are going to have to do it again next week (and because we're pretty sure she lives in Narnia)  BUT its worth it because she is basically ready to be baptized and has already come to church twice in a row, all three hours. She is super sweet. 

Anyway, one lesson I learned this week while teaching. It was one of those moments where I realized my own testimony is stronger than I give it credit for. We were teaching a VERY inactive former missionary, a woman named Lalin. She makes up a ton of excuses as to why she cant come to church, and honestly, teaching her has always been discouraging for me. BUT this last lessons, Sister Matthews and I went in to teach her about temples (sidenote: teaching returned missionaries is always awkward because im like.....I know you know this. In fact, you taught it, And you taught it better than I can because its your own language! But an unfortunate coincidence is that the less-active rate for returned missionaries in Cambodia is SKY HIGH.)  So we taught her about the importance of families in the church and the happiness and blessings our family can receive from going to the temple together. And for the first time since I;ve started teaching her, she was real with me for a second and she was like, "Sister, I just feel like its hopeless. I dont think we'll ever get to go." And I just felt SO SAD. So I looked her right in the eye and said, "I KNOW Heavenly Father will help you go to the temple if you prepare yourself first. If you make the steps to go to church and be worthy, then He will help your family get there. That is His promise. And I know its hard. there arent many temples in Asia and you cant afford to go. But I KNOW that Cambodia will have a temple one day. And when it happens, I will be so happy for all of you." and you know what? I do know it! I know that God loves all of His children, especially the ones in Cambodia, and that He is waiting for the day when He can prepare a temple for them here. I can't wait for that day. I know that the temple brings innumerable blessings to our lives. I know it blesses families. And I know that God wants every single person to have the opportunity to go. I love the temple!!!! And I love Cambodians and I KNOW that they will have those blessings too one day. 

Anyway, thats all for this week. Im sorry not much exciting happened, but just know that things are pretty normal. I miss you all and love you a lot. have a great week!

Love, SIster Davis

                            Some neighborhood kids. I think that one in the black pants is firebending.

This is the stuff our sandwich lady sells. Some cambodians riding their moto by shouted that we were some Americans taking pictures of Khmer food because we dont understand it. they probably thought I was instagramming it.